Traditional toothbrush holders have usually consisted of a plurality of oblong openings, typically in the periphery of a cup holder, as found in U.S. Pat. No. Des. 184,012, in which the handle of a manual toothbrush is inserted into the opening. Variations of this type of holder use spring-biased grippers to grip the handle of a manual toothbrush, such as in U.S. Pat. No. 1,205,311, and those that use slots to engage the handle of a manual toothbrush, as found in U.S. Pat. No. 1,129,363.
More recently, toothbrushes with non-standard handles have become popular. Such brushes include juvenile toothbrushes with cartoon character handles, such as the Colgate® SpongeBob Squarepants™ Children's Toothbrush and the Crest® Sesame Street Kids' Toothbrush, and battery-powered toothbrushes, such as the Colgate Motion and Crest SpinBrush®. Unfortunately, the handle designs of these toothbrushes make them impossible to store in traditional toothbrush holders that were originally designed for ordinary manual toothbrushes. The shapes of these oversized toothbrush handles also make them difficult or impossible to stand the toothbrush on end. Because of this, many of these toothbrushes end up being laid down on a bathroom countertop where they make a mess and can come into contact with a non-hygienic surface. What would be desirable is toothbrush holder that can hold all types of toothbrushes, including those with oversized handles, in a hygienic manner.